Standards
Every claim we rule is tested against the same 98 banned-phrase standards, drawn from the thirteen rulebooks that can actually interrupt your revenue. The standards are versioned, and they move when enforcement moves.
The full standard list is proprietary. The categories, sources and ruling format below are exactly what your report is built from.
Updated as enforcement moves
The claims standard: version in force
A finding is only comparable to another finding ruled on the same version, which is why every published figure states the standards in force at its scan rather than today’s count. This register starts where our scan record starts. We do not have a documented history before it and will not reconstruct one.
What they require
They ask what you hold, and they ask on their schedule. These are the rules themselves, quoted, not our summary of them.
01FTC · Health Products Compliance Guidance
Before disseminating an ad, advertisers must have adequate substantiation for all objective product claims conveyed, expressly or by implication.
02Competition Act · s. 74.01(1)(b)
…that is not based on an adequate and proper test thereof, the proof of which lies on the person making the representation.
03Walmart · Standards for Suppliers
Support any claims you make with adequate substantiation.
04Canadian Code of Advertising Standards · clause 1(e)
All advertising claims and representations must be supported by competent and reliable evidence, which the advertiser will disclose to Ad Standards upon its request.
Four separate obligations, and the burden sits with the advertiser in every one. The audit is the dated file that answers all four, each claim against the standard it has to meet, signed by name.
Each quote verified against the primary source.
The remedy each rule names for itself. Not a prediction about your brand, and not our summary: this is the consequence written into each rule’s own text.
Red is law · grey is a contract you signed · a contract needs no regulator and no notice.
The 13 rulebooks
Your copy answers to all 13 of these at once. Each standard names the one that enforces it, so a finding never says “risky”: it says which authority objects, and where. Of the 13, 4 are law and 9 are contracts and codes: platform terms you agreed to, a supplier agreement and a self-regulatory code. If a lawyer has cleared your copy, they dealt with the law. The contracts move faster and answer to nobody.
Law: a regulator enforces this
The language that converts a supplement into an unapproved drug. Ten separate ways a sentence becomes a disease claim.
Warning letter, seizure, injunction.
Evidence you must hold BEFORE the claim runs, not after. Health benefits generally need randomised controlled human trials.
Civil penalties at $53,088 per violation (16 CFR 1.98(d)).
Your licence states the recommended use that is AUTHORIZED. Marketing beyond it exceeds your own filing.
Stop-sale, licence suspension. Checkable on a public register.
Performance claims need an adequate and proper test, and the proof lies on you. The burden is reversed.
Administrative monetary penalties.
Contract: not law, and faster
Enforcement here is account action, not a regulator. Terms change without notice, and none of these tells you what the others say.
Disease claims, drug-adjacent naming (it names "GLP-1"), Non-GMO documentation, backend keywords.
Listing suppression, and the policy is changeable without notice.
Every milligram figure in your title, bullets, description and images has to match the panel.
Listing suppression.
Stricter than the FTC on one point: "best" and "100% pure" need proof outright. The puffery defence does not apply here.
Listing suppression.
Claims must stay inside the product’s Health Canada authorization. Amazon names and links the licence database.
Listing suppression on the Canadian marketplace.
Before/after implication, sensational health language, personal-attribute framing.
Ad rejection, delivery throttling, account restriction.
Restricted healthcare content and certification requirements.
Ad disapproval, account suspension.
You must "support any claims you make with adequate substantiation". A written ask, in your supplier agreement.
Item deactivation, supplier scorecard, agreement risk.
Stripe will not carry nutraceuticals that "make harmful claims", outrageous claims, fake testimonials, or trials with hidden pricing.
Payouts suspended or delayed, funds held in reserve, account suspended or terminated.
Claims need competent and reliable evidence, disclosed to Ad Standards on request.
Council decision, published. Media may refuse the ad.
FDA structure/function and FTC substantiation govern what a supplement may say. The platforms enforce their own stricter overlay on top.
Health Canada’s natural health product rules run on licensed claims: what you may say is what your licence says. We verify your NPN against Health Canada’s register and flag a missing or mismatched licence. The 98 standards themselves are drawn from US and Canadian rules and from marketplace contracts, so a Canadian brand is ruled on the copy it publishes in both markets.
A standards list is only worth what happens when it misfires. Every finding we have withdrawn is published, with what happened and why, on the corrections page, along with a plain list of what the audit does not cover.
What the standards catch
The 98 standards group into families. The samples are the phrase patterns each family catches, struck the way your report strikes them.
“cures anxiety”“treats insomnia”
“prevents colds”“fights inflammation”
“nature’s Ozempic”“works like Xanax”
“FDA approved”“#1 doctor recommended”
“GMP certified”“pharmaceutical grade”
“boosts immunity 300%”“clinically proven*”
“zero side effects”“completely safe for everyone”
“results in 7 days”“money-back guaranteed results”
37 phrases brands ask about by name, each answered in a sentence, with the rule it fails, the severity we assign and the wording that holds.
Samples are phrase patterns from the standards, not quoted listings. The full 98-standard list ships inside every report.
Anatomy of a ruling
One standard from the named-conditions family, and everything it does to one sentence of live copy.
Any disease state named as a target: anxiety, insomnia, depression, arthritis…
Treating a named condition makes the product an unapproved drug. The single most common FDA warning-letter trigger in supplements.
Fix before anything else on the page.
Move to the permitted structure/function form: state the supported function, never the condition.
As published
“…has also been shown to soothe anxiety.”
Compliant rewrite
“Promotes a sense of calm and supports restful sleep.”
The register
Every rule has a permanent page with the authority it rests on, a version pin and a line to cite it by, so a processor, an agency or an acquirer can point at one in their own policy and have it mean the same thing next year. The whole register is machine-readable at /standards/registry.json, currently version v1.3.1. If you onboard supplement brands, you can adopt these standards as your own policy.
Disease verb 10
Named condition 20
Implied drug 13
False regulatory 9
Substantiation 12
Platform policy 12
Implied claim 7
Label reconciliation 4
Licence scope 3
Processor policy 6
How the standards move
New standards come from the enforcement record, not from opinion. Four intake streams feed a versioned review, and monitoring clients are re-checked against every change.
Version discipline. The standards are versioned and dated. Your report states which version ruled it. When a standard is added, monitoring clients are re-checked against it automatically.
See the enforcement recordThe reviewer of record
Every verdict in every report carries the signature of a licensed pharmacist, by name, with licence number on file. Severity is a professional judgment, not a model output, and the signature puts a named, licensed professional behind every verdict in the file you hand over.
The reviewer of record is named in your report when your audit starts, and the licence is verifiable on the public pharmacy register on request. No ruling reaches a client without that review.
Request
All 98 standards, every channel, $2,000 flat, five business days. The full standard list ships inside your report.